Category Design is crafting a new product or service category to help express how different or revolutionary it is from the existing set.

Why do we need category design?

Category choice is important because humans understand new concepts relative to other concepts they already understand.

• Telsa is like a gasoline car, but it’s different.
• Old Netflix was like a Blockbuster, but there were no stores, and they sent the movies to you, and you mailed them back when you were ready.
• Ikea is like a furniture store, but you take home the furniture immediately instead of waiting for it to be shipped.

Categories come with baggage

See: Category baggage

When to create a new category

• When a product or service doesn’t fit into an existing category because it is fundamentally different

• When the closest category comes with so much category baggage that your product or service doesn’t have